iGoogle Gets Social – Google’s Social Media Obsession Continues
More Google news. Just recently I wrote on Google bettering their search capabilities with some Caffeine. And WATBlog covered Google v/s Twitter v/s Facebook – the mega showdown. An article from a little over a month back had Google Reader adding social features – something like bookmarking, and following. Now, Google has done it again, but with iGoogle. iGoogle is Google’s customisable home-page. For quite some time, I myself was an iGoogle afficionado, and found it pretty cool that everything I needed from news to mail was on my browser the moment I opened it. Now, Google has included social tools, gadgets and updates to it’s popular start page.
Open your iGoogle page, and you will notice a “New! Add social gadgets to post updates and play games with friends”. And it’s not just widgets and games. Now, through iGoogle, you also have updates. Of course, you need to add friends to see updates etc. The obsession with status updates went to the roof with Twitter, with Facebook Lite focused on the trend. Google seems to want a piece of the pie. Google had already included chat as a feature a while back.
Google has launched 19 social widgets and is inviting developers to add more social aspects to the Google start page. Popular games, Scrabble and Chess, have found their way to the list, along with the NY Times crossword, a “Who’s got the biggest brain” application. Other must-try options would be the “To-do” list. The potential of a joint to-do list should get people excited. A time-line for all those who want people to elaborate on their status messages.
For more details on the additions, check out the official Google Blog. A few sites like PCWorld have also tried out the new social gadgets. Of course, developers are welcome to create their own gadgets using a platform called OpenSocial which iGoogle uses.
Also, Google Reader has now added more social media content sharing features. I remember ending my article wondering whether Google would incorporate Twitter. And with no surprise they now have! You can now see twitter feeds from people you follow. As well as share you favourite Google reader articles on a host of other sites.
The changes might only be keeping in-sync with the social media obsession. After all, Yahoo changed it’s front page features quite a bit too. But with Google, it seems like the company is all set to reach out and compete with mainstream social networking sites like Facebook. Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products & user experience, maintains that iGoogle remains a customizable home page. “We still think of this as a personalized home page. Our goal is to have the Google home page be an integral part of our users’ day. That is achieved for some by the standard Google home page featuring only the search box, while others prefer iGoogle. The motivation behind adding a social component to iGoogle was to make it better and more useful” she said.
Google seems to be on a roll with improving their social capabilities. Let’s look at what they have.
- Orkut
- Google Profiles
- Google FriendConnect
- iGoogle + social features
- Social Bookmarking with Reader (Like etc.)
- Social sharing with Reader
- Soon to be released – Google Wave
Have I missed a few?
Suspicious much? Google jealous of Facebook and wants in on your social life? On a lighter note, checkout The Onion’s spoof on Google. The Opt-out Village.
Let us know, which of these Google Features do you actually use on a day-to-day basis. What’s your opinion on the changes made to the home page? Are you likely to waste more time now? 
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